Say it's not so

You haven't heard from me for a few days because I had surgery on my eyes last Friday and it hasn't been easy for me to focus on a computer screen.

You might not hear from me for a while because for the fourth time in the last three years I'm about to be hit by a hurricane - Ernesto seems aimed right at me according to the latest track from the Weather Service. This being the anniversary of Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast, the coverage is constant, but the folks in my area who have been hit by Francis, Jeanne and Wilma haven't had much publicity and proably won't get much more when Ernesto sets us back three years once again.

Some houses down the road from me that were totally destroyed are nearly rebuilt and since they're not finished, may be destroyed again. More businesses will go under, more people will lose what little they have. It will likely be another year or two before the repairs on my house are finished now and that's only if we don't have another hurricane. I'm not betting on that.

Lightning does hit more than once in the same place and hurricanes do too, but one would have thought that two in the same spot within two weeks would get a lot of attention, or that another one in the exact same spot a year later would raise an eyebrow or two. Now that a fourth one in three seasons is expected to hit us again in exactly the same spot, I'm sure the country has lost interest. The damage is spread out and hardly worth sending a news crew, but it's real none the less and I really have to deal with it.

Another 12 hours or so of terror, another week or so of running on generators and sweltering in the heat, another year of clean up, disappointment, heartbreak and repair bills.
The season is just beginning.